What you need to know about the coronavirus today

After 4.2 million COVID-19 cases in November, U.S. pins hope on vaccine
The United States entered the final month of the year hoping that promising vaccine candidates will soon be approved to halt the rapidly spreading coronavirus after 4.2 million new cases were reported in November.
With outgoing President Donald Trump’s coronavirus strategy relying heavily on a vaccine, the FDA is expected to rule on Dec. 10 on whether to approve the emergency use of a vaccine developed by Pfizer. A second candidate from Moderna could follow a week later, officials have said, raising hopes that Americans could start receiving inoculations before the end the year, although widespread vaccinations could take months
COVID-19 infections are still rising in 59 countries. Track daily COVID-19 infections and deaths data for 240 countries and territories around the world.

European vaccine hopes
Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine could be rolled out in Europe this month, the companies said after applying for EU emergency approval. The application to the European Medicines Agency comes days after the companies applied for emergency use of their vaccine in the United States. In their pursuit of a European launch, the partners are neck-and-neck with rival Moderna, which said it would ask the EU regulator to recommend conditional approval.
‘No-swab’ test highly sensitive
A type of COVID-19 test that can be taken without the need for a nose or throat swab has been found to be highly effective, including for people not showing symptoms, the British government said. The RT-LAMP tests, made by privately held UK company OptiGene, have been studied in a pilot program.
California governor considers new stay-home order
California’s governor, the first to impose a statewide lockdown at the outset of the pandemic, said he may renew a stay-at-home order in coming days to counter surging infections that threaten to overwhelm hospital intensive care units. Governor Gavin Newsom cited medical data showing ICU admissions were on track to exceed statewide capacity by mid-December unless public health policies and social behavior patterns change. “The red flags are flying,” Newsom told reporters in an online briefing. “If these trends continue, we’re going to have to take much more dramatic, arguably drastic, action.”
U.S. coronavirus adviser resigns
Dr. Scott Atlas has resigned as special adviser on the coronavirus to President Donald Trump, a White House official said, after a controversial four months during which he clashed repeatedly with other members of the coronavirus task force. Public health experts, including Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, have sharply criticized Atlas, a neuro-radiologist, for providing Trump with misleading or incorrect information on the pandemic.
COVID-19 surges anew in Hong Kong
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam urged residents of the densely populated city to stay at home and avoid unnecessary family gatherings as the global financial hub scrambles to contain a new rise in cases. Lam was speaking at her weekly press conference a day after the government announced tighter measures to curb the spread of the disease which will see group gatherings restricted to two people and most civil servants working from home.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Exxon, Japanese offices, UK houses.
Exxon Mobil has joined the oil-major impairment party, Nomura may let employees keep working from home post-pandemic, and the UK chancellor’s efforts to bolster Britain’s housing market may have some painful fiscal consequences. Catch up with the latest financial insights.

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U.S.

President-elect Joe Biden will formally introduce his top economic policy advisers as his administration prepares to take power amid a slowing economic recovery hampered by the resurgent coronavirus pandemic.
Biden is vetting three environmental justice leaders to head up the White House agency that will take the lead in coordinating efforts to safeguard communities disproportionately affected by pollution, according to sources familiar with the process. Biden’s promise to end U.S. fossil fuel subsidies worth billions of dollars a year for drillers and miners could be hard to keep due to resistance from lawmakers in a narrowly divided Congress, including from within his own party.
As Biden’s team takes shape, his outspoken nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, faces a challenge winning Senate confirmation after a Washington career in which she has crossed powerful figures on both the right and left.

Conservative Supreme Court justices appeared reluctant to block a vaguely defined plan by Trump’s administration to exclude immigrants living in the United States illegally from the population totals used to allocate congressional districts to states.

Data giant S&P Global's plan to buy IHS Markit for $44 billion will face hard questions from the incoming administration of Joe Biden, which has indicated that antitrust enforcement will get tougher, anti-trust experts said.

Special Report

An oil refinery explosion in Philadelphia in 2019 was so large, a National Weather Service satellite captured images of the fireball from space. It released nearly 700,000 pounds of hazardous chemicals. So why did the EPA’s air monitors miss the blast of pollution?